- Lindsay Clancy, 36, returned to a Plymouth, Massachusetts courtroom on Tuesday — her first appearance since a mistrial was declared on September 4.
- The jury deadlocked after nearly 40 hours of deliberation, reportedly split 11 to 1 in favor of acquittal, with a single holdout juror blocking the verdict.
- Her lawyer Kevin Reddington asked the judge to throw out the case entirely, arguing that admitting she killed her children is not the same as admitting criminal responsibility.
- District Attorney Timothy Cruz's office still hasn't said whether it will retry Clancy on first-degree murder charges, which carry a life sentence.
One juror. That's the whole difference between Lindsay Clancy walking into a psychiatric hospital and walking back into a courtroom. On Tuesday, the 36-year-old Massachusetts mother appeared before a judge in Plymouth for the first time since her triple-murder trial collapsed into a mistrial on September 4 — and her lawyers came ready to end the case. Clancy has never disputed that she strangled her three young children in January 2023. Tuesday's hearing was really about the question that deadlocked her jury: was she criminally responsible, or was she lost inside postpartum psychosis?
What happened in court on Tuesday
On the table before Judge William Sullivan: defense motions asking the judge to acquit Clancy or dismiss the charges outright — no second trial at all.
Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, pushed a distinction he says changes everything: admitting Clancy killed her children is not the same as admitting criminal responsibility. “Where's the evidence that she did this?” he argued, calling the prosecution's theory of intent “based on speculation.” The defense wants Sullivan to overrule the mistrial and enter a not-guilty verdict himself — an extraordinary ask, but nothing about this case has been ordinary.
The 11-to-1 split and the holdout juror
Here's what makes Tuesday's hearing so charged: the first trial didn't end in a hung jury by a hair. According to the Associated Press, the jury was split 11 to 1 — eleven jurors leaning toward acquittal, one holding out for a murder conviction. Nearly 40 hours of deliberation couldn't close that gap.
Several jurors have since said on television that, but for that one holdout, they were prepared to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity — what Massachusetts calls lack of criminal responsibility. That verdict would have sent her to a state psychiatric hospital for evaluation instead of prison for life.
The holdout juror, Michael Desronvil, has defended his stance through his lawyer, saying he had no doubts. In a brief video statement to Fox News' “Hannity” on Monday, he said: “The whole focus has been on me, but we want to reel everything back and put the focus on the three angels.” Reddington has also asked for an investigation of the juror, citing the foreperson's complaint that he refused to listen to the law on reasonable doubt.
What the DA could do next
The biggest unanswered question belongs to Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz. His office has stayed silent for weeks on whether it will retry Clancy on first-degree murder charges, which carry a life sentence. On the day of the mistrial he said a decision would come “shortly” — more than three weeks later, it still hasn't. Sullivan has said he'd like any retrial to happen later this year. Cruz's options include retrying the same charges, stepping down to second-degree murder — which would let Clancy waive a jury for a bench trial — or cutting a plea deal. Legal experts told The Washington Post that dropping the case is unlikely, though a former Massachusetts prosecutor suggested a manslaughter charge with a bench trial could spare everyone another mistrial.
The case that gripped the country
No one has ever disputed the basic facts of January 24, 2023. Clancy, then a labor and delivery nurse, strangled 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan with exercise bands in the basement of the family's Duxbury home. She then cut herself with a knife and jumped from a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed.
Reddington's defense has always been that Clancy was delusional in the throes of postpartum psychosis and didn't understand that what she was doing was wrong. Prosecutors acknowledged her mental health struggles — months of treatment, a psychiatric hospital stay — but argued she knew what she was doing and had planned the killings. That's the fault line the retrial decision rests on. Watch the judge's ruling on the dismissal motions first, then the DA's call: retry, reduce, deal — or walk away.
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